SENATE BILL REPORT
SHB 2220
AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS,
FEBRUARY 21, 1994
Brief Description: Appointing commissioners for housing authorities.
SPONSORS: House Committee on Local Government (originally sponsored by Representatives Wolfe, Brumsickle, Ogden and H. Myers)
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS
Majority Report: Do pass.
Signed by Senators Haugen, Chairman; Loveland, McCaslin, Oke and Winsley.
Staff: Eugene Green (786‑7405)
Hearing Dates: February 21, 1994
BACKGROUND:
An inactive housing authority exists in every county, city and town, which can be activated if the county, city or town governing body adopts a resolution declaring the need for the housing authority and making certain findings.
Housing authorities construct, acquire and operate housing projects for low-income persons and administer contracts for housing assistance payments to low-income persons under federal laws. Housing authorities may issue revenue bonds to finance their projects but may not issue general obligation bonds or impose taxes.
The governing body of a housing authority is a five-member board of commissioners appointed by the mayor of the city or town, or county legislative authority, to staggered five-year terms of office. A housing authority commissioner may not be an officer or employee of the county, city or town that activated the housing authority.
SUMMARY:
Restrictions on the designation of housing authority commissioners are altered. One commissioner in a housing authority of a county with a population of 175,000 or less, as of the 1990 federal census, is allowed to be an employee of a separately elected official of the county, other than the governing body.
Appropriation: none
Revenue: none
Fiscal Note: none requested
TESTIMONY FOR:
This will give the non-urban counties some badly needed flexibility.
TESTIMONY AGAINST: None
TESTIFIED: Chris Lowell, Thurston County Housing Authority (pro); Mike Sivia, Seattle Housing Authority (pro)